The present invention relates to a graphical user interface, and more particularly to an information processing apparatus, a display processing method, and a program, which improve usability when handling a large number of objects on a display screen.
Many current personal computers employ a window system, which enables intuitive operation. The window system allows a user to access a desired object not displayed in a window by scrolling with an input device, such as a mouse or a keyboard.
Since data such as a large amount of content, a large table, or a large document cannot be displayed as a whole within a window, such data is typically browsed with scrolling or tab-switching. In working on a plurality of scattered objects, operations for finding desired objects are required because not all the objects can necessarily be simultaneously displayed.
Common ways to simultaneously display a plurality of objects include activating two or more instances of an application, or dividing a screen into two or more areas and displaying different portions of the same document.
Japanese Patent Application JP2004-145724A, “Information Display Method for Information Display”, discloses a technique for such a situation that past headlines of e.g., news, in a headline list displayed on a screen, are scrolled up and out of the screen over time. Designating headlines that will be needed (that are desired to be browsed later) in advance allows past headlines scrolled out of the screen to be displayed in a sub-window.
Japanese Patent Application JP02-139625A, “Screen Display System”, discloses a technique by which, when data larger than a screen is displayed, information is displayed indicating the presence of a portion not displayed in the screen. Specifically, for any portion not displayed in the screen, a boundary of a data display area is represented as a dotted line instead of a solid line.
According to the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Applications, when there is a portion that extends off screen due to scrolling etc., the presence and information thereof are displayed. However, it does not provide an ergonomically excellent display/selection method when a particular region is out of a display area. Moreover, when the particular region returns into the display area with scrolling etc., the display of the presence information is not appropriately cleared.